[Rhiathame]

Someone may have already found this out but I discovered this yesterday.

A few weeks ago I grabbed a sample of the Princess Diaries Vol. I. because someone on the boards recommended it. I finally got around to reading the sample yesterday. I zipped through the sample and then clicked that handy link to see more details (so I could see the price) and saw to my horror that the status of the book had changed to not available yet! Undaunted I decided that I would see if I could sneaky my way around this and went back to the sample and clicked the Buy this book now link and....WOOHOO, success! I was able to download and read the book

I have not tested this with any other books because I don't know of any more samples that I have that the books have been pulled. But if this works with other books I think samples will become our best friend for one more reason

 

[sixnsolid]

That is a neat trick. Wish I had a sample of S.K.'s The Stand

 

[Teach142]

I have noticed that a couple of my books are no longer available.  How can that be?  Luckily, they are still on my Kindle.  In another thread, I mentioned that my copy of The Kindle Cookbook changed to the Kindle 2 Cookbook when I upgraded to the K2.  However, the info in it is still K1 info.  Go figure!

 

[Gertie Kindle]

I have noticed that a couple of my books are no longer available. How can that be? Luckily, they are still on my Kindle. In another thread, I mentioned that my copy of The Kindle Cookbook changed to the Kindle 2 Cookbook when I upgraded to the K2. However, the info in it is still K1 info. Go figure!

If an author updates a book you have already dnl'd, only the metadata will update, not the book itself. New purchasers will get the updated version of the book.

 

[cheerio]

Good to know

 

[Scheherazade]

Feh, I thought one of the selling points was that if a book is upgraded or updated that we'd get the new versions, especially in regards to typos and the like.  Seems a bit wrong to buy a book and not get the best version of it available.  If it was changed there's got to be a reason it was changed rather than just putting out a new one.

 

[artsandhistoryfan]

Feh, I thought one of the selling points was that if a book is upgraded or updated that we'd get the new versions, especially in regards to typos and the like. Seems a bit wrong to buy a book and not get the best version of it available. If it was changed there's got to be a reason it was changed rather than just putting out a new one.

That had been the plan and the advertising I read.

However, David Emberson had problems with the updates (as did others). It seems that if you make ny highlights or notes in a file then something prevents you from getting the update.

No way around it. CS sometimes refunded the money so the person could buy the newer book with it. But it was decided at some point that the K2 book is another animal from the K1 book. I'd have to agree so I bought the 2nd one, as I like his step-by-step instructions. It's not a matter of K1 in the book with a chapter update to K2 (the changes are just too many).

I'm still hoping for Leslie's K2 book as I like her organization of all the myriad questions people ask.

 

[Cillasi]

I thought you had to redownload a book to get an updated copy.  I've never had to do it so I'm not sure, but that's what I seem to remember someone else saying about his book...Windwalker, maybe? 

 

[artsandhistoryfan]

I thought you had to redownload a book to get an updated copy. I've never had to do it so I'm not sure, but that's what I seem to remember someone else saying about his book...Windwalker, maybe?

That was the plan, as I mentioned. It just doesn't work most of the time. And especially not if you've used the highlight/note/bookmark functions. It's a bug. But there seems little push to get that fixed. Maybe they were all just concentrating on the DX prototype.

 

[Jeff]

That was the plan, as I mentioned. It just doesn't work most of the time. And especially not if you've used the highlight/note/bookmark functions. It's a bug. But there seems little push to get that fixed. Maybe they were all just concentrating on the DX prototype.

The notes and bookmarks are probably not the issue. It seems that Amazon keeps the books that you purchase in your own private library on their server. Consequently, when you remove and then download a book again you get the copy from your library, not the most recent version. Gertie was only able to get the edited version of one of my books by asking Amazon for a refund and then buying the book again. I hope you're right about Amazon changing their policy. Being able to update a book was one of the features that attracted me to publishing on the Kindle.

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

Someone may have already found this out but I discovered this yesterday.

A few weeks ago I grabbed a sample of the Princess Diaries Vol. I. because someone on the boards recommended it. I finally got around to reading the sample yesterday. I zipped through the sample and then clicked that handy link to see more details (so I could see the price) and saw to my horror that the status of the book had changed to not available yet! Undaunted I decided that I would see if I could sneaky my way around this and went back to the sample and clicked the Buy this book now link and....WOOHOO, success! I was able to download and read the book

The same thing happened with the book that Slumdog Millionaire was based on, Q&A. The book was pulled but you could still buy the book using the sample, which I did. The even better news was that, since samples are not linked to the Kindle they're on and can be shared, I sent my sample to someone else and THEY were able to purchase the book from the sample.

I don't know if buying a pulled book from the sample works in all cases, so I don't know if it would work for the Stand, but if anyone has the sample on their Kindle, we could try it.

 

[Ann in Arlington]

Hmmmmm. . . . .I have a sample of Hitchhikers' Guide. . .which has since been pulled.  When I get my 'allowance' next month I'll have to see if I can purchase the whole thing. . . .I did look at it but it said it wasn't available, so I didn't hit 'buy'  This seems to mean that even when it's pulled it's still there somehow. . . . .hmmmmm. . . . ...

 

[Jeff]

If anyone has a sample of The Winds of War I'd be grateful for a copy. The image of the kindle edition is still on Amazon's server so maybe the book is too.

​

 

[Forster]

I wonder if all these books are being pulled to disable the text to speech?

 

[Jeff]

I wonder if all these books are being pulled to disable the text to speech?

That seems unlikely. I read somewhere that there's a toggle on the K-2 that enables/disables the TTS based upon some setting in the file header.

 

[marianneg]

I would guess that there might be a time limit on how long you can buy the book this way, but I don't know.

 

[L.Canton]

I'll give this little trick a try and see how it works out for me. I can think of at *least* a few books I would want to use this for.

 

[Athenagwis]

Well I haven't been downloading samples as of yet, but this might be a good reason to do it. 

Rachel

 

[Zion34]

This is really neat. Thanks for sharing!

 

[artsandhistoryfan]

The notes and bookmarks are probably not the issue. It seems that Amazon keeps the books that you purchase in your own private library on their server. Consequently, when you remove and then download a book again you get the copy from your library, not the most recent version. Gertie was only able to get the edited version of one of my books by asking Amazon for a refund and then buying the book again. I hope you're right about Amazon changing their policy. Being able to update a book was one of the features that attracted me to publishing on the Kindle.

David Emberson was told by Amazon that highlights and notes put into the associated file did prevent the new one from being downloaded. I was able to get a 3rd edition at one point after playing around with it.

But the version 2 (the real version 2, not the version 2 that gives contents for version 1 -- what a mixup!) was not downloadable without calling customer service. i felt it was fair to see it as a new book as it really was a rewrite and the answers were different so I decided to pay for the new book.

Good luck on this. Must be maddening for you folks !